European professional football sounds the alarm on the Sahel

Match Day Against Hunger from 30 March – 2 April

28 March 2012, Brussels, Nyon, Rome - The "Professional Football Against Hunger" campaign is coming to hundreds of European football stadiums with the message that action is needed now to avert a humanitarian disaster in the Sahel region of Africa, where a food and nutrition crisis caused by drought, chronic poverty, high food prices, displacement and conflict is affecting millions of people.

Promoted by the Association of European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL), the European Commission and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the third and biggest-ever Match Day Against Hunger kicks off on 30 March to spread this call for urgent action. The president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, will attend the game between Borussia Dortmund and VfB Stuttgart.

By the time the last match is played on 2 April, the campaign's message and activities will have swept across the continent from Glasgow to Vienna and from Málaga to Novosibirsk, involving 300 professional football clubs in 20 leagues throughout 16 European countries, reaching millions of football fans.